Slovenia Weekly

It's our world

23.09.2016

Photo: Mostphotos

The General Assembly of one of the most important political entities of 20th century – the United Nations, hosted a session this week, starting with a summit on refugees. By doing so, the world organisation attempts to adequately respond to the increasingly acute refugee crisis.

Currently, there are 65 million refugees and displaced persons in the world, and the situation is far from improving. During the New York summit, the heads of EU member states presented new ideas regarding the role of the United Nations during the refugee crisis. It is difficult to predict how the world leaders’ contributions could improve the current situation and what is the role of the organisation in today’s world, which is currently at a crossroads trying to choose the right path. Unfortunately, empty words are all we get when interests of major world powers clash.

Just recently, the world has celebrated the International Day of Peace, focusing on the 17 sustainable development objectives which promote peace as conflicts often arise when people start competing for limited resources. For this reason, Slovenia calls for strict respect for human rights and freedoms, the cessation of hostilities, the resolution of conflicts and the 24-hour ceasefire which all parties in conflict were urged to observe to commemorate the 2016 International Day of Peace. The symbolic meaning of the day without conflicts sends an important message that conflicts can and should be resolved, which means a lot more than just laying down the arms.

"The message of today's meeting was that the 27 countries of the EU remain united even after the British Referendum. We would like to continue developing the EU to the benefit of its citizens," said Prime Minister Miro Cerar today, as he attended the informal assembly of the EU-27 leaders in Bratislava, this time without the United Kingdom representative.
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This week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec and President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor attended the high-level summit of UN General Assembly, addressing the problem of large flows of refugees and migrants.
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Minister of Economic Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek paid a visit to the United Arab Emirates, accompanied by an economy-sector delegation of 50-members in an attempt to boost the economic cooperation.
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The government got acquainted at Thursday with the latest forecast, which provides the basis for the 2017 and 2018 budget documents. The Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD), the Slovenian government's economic forecaster, has upgraded its economic forecast for this year to 2.3% from 1.7%. It also expects faster GDP growth in 2017 and 2018.
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On Thursday, the European Mobility Week traditionally ended with the Car-Free Day, with as many as 71 Slovenian municipalities participating this year. Most cities used the occasion to close the central areas and many municipalities prepared the integrated transport strategies.
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